Sanctuary Arts is the home of a visually inspiring teaching studio, private arts studios, and gallery — all located in a converted 1861 New England church in Eliot, Maine. The fall class schedule was recently posted to their website, check it out here!

Friday, June 17, 2011

We are just weeks away from the opening of our upcoming exhibition, "Reclaiming the Current", featuring new works by Robin Luciano Beaty!

Robin's work is driven by the intuitive journey of discovering the reminiscent through process rather than rendering an explicit space. "My intention is to spark personal recollections in the viewer from an unconventional perspective using unexpected materials. I'm communicating more of a memory than a representation with the use of texture, neglected everyday objects and forgotten mementos of the past."

"Though the fluvial and sculptural qualities of wax , I navigate memory. Scraping, tearing, building up and burning down multiple layers to reveal internal compositions brought out only by this tactile and physical experience. Sublime and unpredictable, additive and subtractive, translucent and textural, the medium of encaustic strongly influences the direction of each painting."

In her most recent work, Robin strives to capture the universal and emotional connection to water embedded within our life memories. Oceans, rivers and lakes are instilled in our subconscious scrapbook, creating an undeniable feeling of nostalgia and escape. Robin is able to reclaim these memories in a significantly more personal way by incorporating vintage photographs, letters, textiles and found objects.

"There is something about water that entices us all, luring our own flesh and imagination towards it. The seductive reminiscence brought on by the ghostly mirror of a fogged lake or the lap of wave that leaves its white lace along the shore is what inspires me. Water is the epitomal symbol of metamorphosis and philosophical recycling. It symbolizes transformation, intuition and resurrection."

"Together the elements of water and reclaimed object entrenched within the atmospheric and ancient medium of wax, elicits the deepest sense of past, while offering a renewed vision of the current."

Join us at the opening reception Friday, July 1st, 5-8pm in conjunction with art 'round town

Monday, June 6, 2011

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate the opening of Quiet Memory this past Friday! The gallery was packed, and the crowd spilled out on to the sidewalk. I failed to get pictures of the actual opening, however, I did take some photographs of the installation over the weekend.

Along with everyone else who has come in to see the show, I am reminded of my own childhood. I cherish the memories I have of my grandparents in the yard. Life seemed simple, slow and so sweet. I recently came across this series of photographs of my grandparents in their garden ...

I have been working on a new painting inspired by the series -- more on that later!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

I was delighted to receive a package from My Sunset Road yesterday! Courtney has been working away on a new collection based on a series of line drawings. The "Contour Collection" is much more minimal & modern than the previous (and also fabulous) tribal pieces ...

"One day, about 10 years ago, I decided to make a necklace as a gift for a family member. This is worth mentioning since I was a painter at the time! Making that very first piece sparked a love of a craft I had never considered and I now do it every day.

As a young mom I look for pieces that are both special and everyday wearable. I'm a t-shirt and jeans type of girl but I like my t-shirts modern and edgy and my jeans to take me from day to evening. So that's what I make. Each design from My Sunset Road has it's own story, is inspired by a recent trip to a museum or my love of history and ancient cultures. Each piece is also extremely easy to wear and really and truly goes with just about everything in your closet.

I am committed to being a socially responsible and eco-friendly business. Most designs are made with recycled sterling silver. I also reuse and recycle all of my scrap metal and ship your items in 100% recycled gift boxes and mailers.

I love what I do and hope that will comes across to each of my customers in the quality of my work as well as in my customer service. My Sunset Road strives to bring you original designs that you reach for everyday."

A wide assortment of the new earrings and necklaces are currently available in the gallery and also thru our online shop!

“Our Town” by Shiao-Ping Wang is one of the paintings from our current show. It is 30”x40” and in acrylic on canvas. Recently this painting took an unexpected turn of development – it changed its introverted personality into an extrovert.

Like many artists Shiao-Ping pursues beauty in distilling personal observations in an ordinary life. She always admires artists who paint heroic themes, such as Picasso’s Guernica about the Spanish Civil War, but she never had the drive or vision on that scale. Not until a recent issue woke up the inner community advocate in her...

The issue: the controversial reuse of the Historic Hilltop Elementary School in Somersworth.

As one of the oldest elementary schools in the state, Hilltop’s life as a school will end this June when the school moves to a new location. The future of the historic building is undecided. In a Study commissioned by the City it concluded: “The community has always expressed a strong desire to maintain the building as a school to fit into the existing urban fabric of the area of the city and maintain a civic presence on the site. The city presently intends for the building to remain a public use. Out of the fifteen options presented the following five were chose by the community as possible The five were an Art School with Housing, a Community Business Incubator, a Charter/Private/Second Start School, a Performance Arts building, and a Park with Bandstand. (Quoted from Hilltop Elementary School Reuse Study, “Report Summary”)

All sounds fine until a few months ago. A developer from Massachusetts proposed to purchase the site and turn it into a 50-unit rental property in an area zoned as single-family use. They proposed to add a bigger building behind the original one. Dismay erupted. Opposition from residents went up when the City Council proposed a resolution to draft the sale and purchase contract. Many residents spoke passionately at the council meetings and formed an organization called Friends of Somersworth.

When “Our Town” was conceived in 2008 it meant to reflect Shiao-Ping's experience of settling in Somersworth the year before, and it contained several maps that alluded to a life of multiple transplanting experiences. The painting was gradually ignored among many projects in her studio. Two months ago when she noticed it again, she saw half painted maps strewn over discordant colors, honestly projecting the creators’ confused mind. Yet at the same time it was urging her, "You can figure out a way out of the discord. I may look very different if you keep trying."

As she became more involved in advocating the community use of the Hilltop School, her vision of the painting became clear – "it is an image of what a community can do if people reach out to one another. The streets on the map turned into threads that knot together. The weaving pattern alludes to the textile industry past of Somersworth."

In April, Shiao-Ping brought the painting to Weir Farm National Historic Site as the Artist-In-Residence, in Wilton, CT. "There I learned about the decade long process that established the site, with much hard work and generosity of many people. Inspired, I focus on the hopeful vision of a brighter future of my town. When the painting was finished at the end of the residency, I realized that I have done my first political painting. It is now titled Our Town."

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I've been taking advantage of the rain-filled forecast and working on new window displays for the summer! I've been trying to come up with ideas using materials found in the gallery -- I'm a bit of a hoarder, and so thankfully there are plenty of materials to choose from (a few months ago I utilized torn strips of leftover matboard that have been piling up in the basement). This past week I came upon a tall stack of bright yellow paper plates and an assortment of clear plastic and white paper dixie cups that have been taking up precious cabinet space in the backroom for perhaps three or four years (they are no longer needed at the opening receptions as we've opted for finger foods), so there it began. Some staples, a few hole punches and a little silver ribbon completed the transformation.

"There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transfer a yellow spot into the sun."

Saturday, May 21, 2011

One of the best parts of being a curator is visiting artists' studios! The process of creating is as important as what ultimately gets created. In anticipation of her upcoming solo show, Cindy has sent some photos of her work space for me to share with you...enjoy!

"My passions are art, design, fashion, food, travel and pretty much anything I can create with my hands. I have several half-finished knitting projects around the house, and culinary creations in my fridge that spawned from a spontaneous fusion of ingredients into a pan. My main passion though, which has stayed true for all my life, has specifically been painting."*

"I miss when life was so black and white and when my biggest troubles were being made to go to bed at a decent hour."*

"I still remember my first set of watercolor paints -- there was something very magical about those little tubes. I began painting in elementary school using water-based media and painting still lives of fruits and vegetables. At that time I had already made up my mind that I wanted to be a painter and I still carry that drive."*

We are getting very excited for the upcoming show, "Quiet Memory" featuring new works by Cindy Rizza! here's a little sneaky peak...

Cindy’s recent works explore the power of memory and attachment in ethereal tributes to common things. Her film-like paintings are bittersweet – haunted by the sense of fleeting time, yet rendered eternal in all of their comforts. Inspired by her own memory and longings, she hopes to connect the viewer with a lingering human presence intimate to their own past.

Cindy has an eye and technique well beyond her years. She received her BFA, summa cum laude, from the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, NH in 2007. She has exhibited her work throughout New England and won numerous awards, most recently the Spotlight Award for “Outstanding Representational Artist” in the Seacoast in 2011. And although she realizes the challenge of being “one single voice in a very noisy art world,” she is already catching the eye of critics and collectors on a local and national level.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

One of the paintings in "Resonance" was inspired by a short story by Linnea Feldman Emison. (her last name may be familiar to you as she is the younger sister of artist Chloe Feldman Emison!)

Time Story

Mrs. Ruddleford was a very nice old lady. She lived on a big house on a hill, where she liked to give lovely tea parties. There was nothing particualy unusual about Mrs. Ruddleford, except one thing, that she had never told anyone about. It was something that she owned, something very special. Mrs. Ruddleford owned Time. Mrs. Ruddleford couldn't really remember where she had gotten Time. She thought she might have bought it in a shop somewhere, but she wasn't sure. Her memory wasn't as good as it had been. Mrs. Ruddleford had owned Time for a very long while. She had never told anybody about it. She kept Time in the attic so that people wouldn't see it and ask about it when they came to her tea parties. Mrs. Ruddleford couldn't control Time just because she owned it. Everything happened for her in exactly the same order it happened to everybody else. Mrs. Ruddleford just left Time by itself up in the attic, and didn't bother with it much. She thought it must be awfully hard work, keeping everything that ever happened in it's proper order. Mrs. Ruddleford was very proud of owning Time.

One day, Mrs. Ruddleford decided that she had owned Time long enough. She wasn't very young anymore, and she thought it might be nice to let someone else take care of Time. She knew it was very important who she picked to give it to. If Time wasn't properly taken care of, everything would get out of order. But she couldn't pick anyone to give Time to. Nobody seemed good enough. Mrs. Ruddleford loved Time, and she wanted it to go somewhere very nice. Finally, Mrs. Ruddleford decided not to give Time to anybody. She just went up to the attic and opened a window. She let Time drift out, and oat away from her over the trees. Mrs. Ruddleford smiled. "Maybe somebody will find Time", she thought, "maybe somebody will find it and take very good care of it. That would be nice." Mrs. Ruddleford closed the window.

We are currently featuring new works by Shiao-Ping Wang. "Resonance" features paintings picturing the intangible experiences of travel and listening to music. Using map as a metaphor for journey, Wang combines maps with abstract shapes and patterns to evoke the sense of time when such experiences occur.

Drawing inspiration from her recent residency at Weir Farm Historic Site in Wilton, CT, Wang also incorporates stitching and beads as part of the painting.

"Resonance" runs thru May 30th! and all of the works from this show are available to view and purchase in our online shop! cheers,

Kim

ps. this is our first blog post since last August! crazy, i know. and while i am so sorry to have not posted about all of the amazing shows we've presented in the past nine-ish months, i am super excited to share with you what is up and coming...

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Tanya Lacourse visited Robin's studio this past sunday! She writes "It was love at first site when I parked my car across the street from Robin's art studio in Byfield. Her barn — set on an angle 50 feet from the road — is loosely landscaped with natural rock and wild flowers. A vintage blue Vespa sits out front adding to the warm, countryside feel. The backyard is equally charming with a small farmer's porch and a chicken coop that houses three friendly chickens..."

read the entire article here on Apartment Therapy! Congratulations Robin, you built your dream and it is gorgeous!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

This month we have a very special show featuring works by Dustan Knight -- It's a Garden Party!

"I can feel the plants growing around me, their breath sweet , their heartbeats fluttering in the heat of this summer afternoon I can hear them whispering with the cicada and shifting slightly as they dig deeper into the hot dirt I'll water them in the morning, while they still have tiaras of dew and snip off their flowers as offerings to august. I have been painting this subject for way too long but it seems to be growing more intriguing rather than less, so there will be more flowers, and more koi pools." - Dustan Knight

Dustan Knight has an MFA from Pratt Institute and an MA from Boston University in Art History.

"My artistic sensibility is strongly influenced by my post graduate years in New York City. I was involved in the Expressionist movement of new artists in the eighties. Like them I believe that art should be a passionate statement from the artist’s innermost self. My subsequent study in Art History establishes a framework of artistic ideas and ideals giving my work depth and context within the historic dialogue of art and culture. I feel comfortable using various mediums. Materials and technique are simply vocabulary to express whatever I feel is important to communicate."

"I have been working with watercolor during the last ten years and am fascinated by the brilliant fragile color, physical peculiarities and speed with which you can move it. It is a really fun exciting medium that reacts immediately (and not always in a predictable manner) to every thing I do or refrain from doing."

"I continue to work toward a distillation of concept (the elusive perfection of ‘not too many notes - not too few ‘) drawing on themes which mean something tremendously important to me, which I attempt to convey as eloquently as possible to my viewers."

Dusty lives and works out of her studio in New Castle, NH. She has won numerous awards for her work and exhibited throughout New England for over twenty years. She also offers workshops, writes regional reviews for Art New England and teaches as an adjunct professor at several local art colleges.

"I am not a gardener and my garden is very messy, which distresses me everytime a 'real' gardener comes to visit....

...But the tangle of weeds and perennials look alot like my paintings. I Like the way the watercolor paint pools and melts into different shapes and I like the way the spaces, become shapes then become spaces, just as my garden does."

Garden Party runs thru August 29th. All of the works from this show are available to view and purchase in our online shop!